Once upon a midnight dreary
by forgetspecifics
Summary: Written on commission from boom-a-yang on tumblr. Shout-out for being the first one to take a chance on me with paid writing. Some sort of AU.


**A/N:** I was given a choice of 4 prompts; it's written at the end as to not spoil anything.

Hope y'all enjoy.

Edit 4th December 2018: this whole time I never realised that the first two sentences were missing sooo, oops?

* * *

"Yang," a voice said quietly, no other sound but the humming of the refrigerator permeating the night's silence. That was, apart from the incessant _tap tap tap_ at the front door.

The voice tried again, this time louder, small hands shaking awake the heavy sleeper. " _Yang_!"

A groan signified consciousness from the lump under the duvet, a head of luscious blonde hair rising from its slumber. "What is it? Ruby?" The tired questions came, dazed and confused.

Indeed it was Ruby, Yang's younger half-sister, pulling her out of dreamland. "Someone's at the door, they keep knocking," she informed, looking over her shoulder towards the front door. It was hidden by a divider that formed Yang's bedroom in their open-plan apartment, yet, Ruby could not help her eyes wandering over there while Yang composed herself.

"The fuck? What time is it?" Yang asked, hauling herself out of bed and into the small kitchen with a glowing digital clock, the device rudely piercing the darkness and hurting her eyes. "It's one in the morning, damn it," the older sister was not happy in the slightest.

Ruby appeared behind her, her hushed voice not even close to the average whisper. "It sounded frantic, but you sleep like the dead, and you told me-"

"To not open the door if I was asleep in case you get murdered or something," Yang finished reciting the rule she had drilled into Ruby's head (she was at least pleased it had worked). "Ya-huh, I remember. I don't hear any-"

 _Knock knock knock_.

The two young women stopped in their tracks, mouths shut, testing whatever visitor was interrupting their rest. It wasn't long before the noise started up again, rapping at the wood faster than the instance a minute ago.

Finally coming completely to, Yang's annoyance returned. "What is this, an _Edgar Allan Poe_ poem? The only way I'm not gonna be pissed off is if it's a bird with brain damage waking me up," she muttered, being cautious to retrieve her knuckledusters from their odds-and-ends drawer in the kitchen. Who knew what awaited her on the other side of that door? She had no other means to protect her and her sister, and their apartment wasn't exactly in the fanciest neighbourhood nor was it the most secure.

That was their general problem – she couldn't afford a two bedroom apartment, and there was a lack of luxury in their current one, with no peep-hole in their front door and a broken security chain (that she now wished she'd fixed last week, instead of putting it off).

"Get behind me," she ushered Ruby with her left arm, who had found her own weapon, their old baseball bat. _Smart kid_ , she mentally praised, before preparing for the worst. She just wanted to sleep, and that meant ridding themselves of the nuisance knocking – impending danger be damned. It also could be someone dying, looking for help, so that motivated her just as much.

Counting down from three, Yang swung the door open in an instant to avoid being rushed and knocked down. The hand that was still poised in mid-air outside their door stopped from surprise as they were greeted by two girls; fists raised and a shoddy wooden bat ready to swing.

The moment passed quickly as recognition between the party inside and the party outside registered, the person at the door throwing themselves bodily at Yang.

The blonde barely had time to react, but managed to not topple over with the added weight. "You scared the shit out of us, Blake," she was relieved it was only her friend and not a psychopath that was currently clinging to her – but she was still wondering _what_ was going on.

She felt moisture on her chest and small sniffles coming from her black-haired Faunus friend, hastily wrapping her arms, knuckledusters and all, around the slightly shorter frame. "Wait, hey, what's wrong?"

 _Now_ she was worried. It should have been immediate; realising that something wasn't right. Blake never showed up uninvited (let alone at one a.m.), wasn't a touchy-feely person, and barely showed emotion most of the time. They were complete opposites in those ways, but still valued each other highly – and she knew it was more than Blake liked to admit.

"I scared _you_?" Blake finally said, louder than the neighbours probably would have preferred. She was taken inside by Yang, not bothering to resist as she was lifted up without their embrace disturbed. Ruby had backed off seeing the face of a friend, setting her bat down by the door as she closed it. The light from the moon outside was blocked, leaving her little choice but switching on a light.

The sisters then shared a look over the crying girl's shoulder as Yang held her. Ruby's face clearly asked for an explanation, but there was none. Silently mouthing back that she didn't know, Yang simply handed over her weapon and began the comforting process she'd developed and mastered while raising Ruby.

It only took a few moments of moving her palms up and down Blake's spine to get her to relax a bit, the grip on her tank top loosening. Admittedly Yang had hesitation, having _never before_ hugged Blake for more than a few seconds – she'd have to write this down as a new record on her mental scoreboard.

It usually wouldn't have mattered; she had no problem respecting people's personal bubbles, but there was something about Blake that made Yang always wish for more contact. She'd never been able to figure out if she was simply being weird. The answer had finally come as she found that they fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Blake was at least a few inches shorter than her without the ridiculous high heels she liked to wear, as she was still clearly wearing her pyjamas and slippers in her apparent haste to get over to the sisters' apartment. Which meant her face...was buried in her cleavage.

Yang quickly leaned her upper body away, not even sure that this was the same Blake she had befriended. "What's gotten into you?"

She must have said it the wrong way, because Blake pushed her away with a strength Yang didn't expect. "Yang Xiao Long, how dare you." The Faunus' usually bright golden eyes were sullen, and the redness present clearly showed she had been crying long before arriving.

Yang wasn't sure how to respond. The phrase usually indicated she'd done something she shouldn't have, yet the tone wasn't accusatory. But Blake was staring, so she had to say something. "Uh, I don't-"

"I had a terrible nightmare about you," Blake left no room for her to respond, obviously upset, but seemingly unsure of herself now that they were face-to-face.

Yang could hear the forced calm in her voice, her brain falling further behind in regards to _why_ Blake was acting concerned beyond anything she'd ever expressed before. She'd had a dream and her most reasonable reaction was to physically check up on her at one in the morning?

"Oh," was all Yang could say, not really finding any answer that would better serve the situation.

Blake's face fell in an instant and Yang knew she'd said the wrong thing again.

"What am I doing?" Blake unnaturally forced a laugh out, stepping aside to make a beeline for the door. "I shouldn't have come here-"

"No, it's okay, really," Yang worked equally fast to take Blake's hand to prevent her from going anywhere. She should have been more sensitive – just because she was baffled didn't mean that _Blake_ hadn't shown up in _tears_ obviously seeking _comfort_. Which was what she would get. "Ruby, can you boil some water?"

The brunette, who was observing with her own wonder, nodded and padded over to the small kitchen, knowing exactly what Yang was thinking. Tea for Blake; something for her hands to hold and to distract her. While Blake was closer to Yang, Ruby still knew her pretty well. In fact, Yang was the closest to Blake out of all their friends, much to the confusion of Weiss. _I don't know how you can bear her awful jokes,_ _Blake_ _,_ was something the petite heiress said often.

Yang lead Blake by the hand to her bedroom. She hated calling it a bedroom when it wasn't a room at all, just a double bed in a corner surrounded by privacy screens, but that was just the way things were. Yang didn't mind giving Ruby her own room; as long as she could sleep she was good.

"Tell me what's wrong," Yang coaxed over the sound of a rumbling kettle, pulling her friend down to sit on the mattress and mussed bedcovers.

Blake fidgeted, zoning out and scanning the _not_ -room; the two solid walls devoid of art while the makeshift walls were tacked with a never-ending supply of pictures of friends and family, and the floor littered with laundry and shoes. Yang had a lot of shoes. She was brought back by a gentle touch on her arm; warm and soft. Yang was warm and soft, the designated mom-friend, but also a kind and generous individual that was considerate of everyone she cared about.

Right, that's why she was here. To see Yang. "Y- you were in my dream and... I tried calling you, and it went straight to voicemail. I _had_ to come all this way."

Knowing its shrill tone would have woken her, Yang pondered. "My phone didn't ring. I put it on to charge before I went to sleep," she crawled to her beside table to find the power cable dangling precariously in the charge port, evidently indicating she had failed to do as she claimed. The phone was devoid of life as she attempted to turn it on. "I didn't plug it in properly, it's dead."

Her words again had the opposite of the intended effect, causing Blake to make small wail and bury her head in her hands. Yang had never scrambled on all fours so quickly in her life, wrapping Blake in a hug, feeling like she really _had_ done something she shouldn't have.

"Blake, calm down. Everything's fine, it was just a bad dream," she repeated her earlier process, Blake turning into her chest as the kettle finally came to a boil and tuned off with a _click_ in the background.

"It felt so real. I had to make sure you were okay."

Yang had to listen closely to catch the mumbled words as they were sufficiently...muffled. She tried not to think about Blake's face in her cleavage, and to think about the real issue. It seemed that something had happened to her in Blake's dream, something bad enough to shake the normally stoic girl.

She needed to hear more. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't I be okay?"

Blake didn't answer right away, and she didn't move. It felt like an eternity had passed when she finally did speak. "I saw you _die_ , Yang. It was so horrible, I don't even remember waking up because I was in tears, and-"

"Hey, c'mon now. You don't have to explain yourself, you were scared," Yang had heard enough. She knew that Blake didn't have the most carefree childhood, and that she tended to overthink a lot of things. "Try not to think about what you saw and focus on me." Yang had figured out over the years that reassurance had to be given quickly, before Blake's overthinking turned into self-blame, but luckily (or because of her persistence) Blake had come to trust her enough to open up more – instead of pretending nothing was wrong.

Blake's hands only moved to encircle Yang's waist, the Faunus thinking herself better off anchored, in case somehow either of them slipped away into oblivion. Still, she wasn't sure that she could forget what had unfolded right in front of her.

"What if you're just a dream too?" Her imagination wasn't always her friend and her mind was often fooled by it.

There was an easy answer to that, but Yang was never one to give the easy answers. "Then you dream about me an awful lot." She couldn't help but smile; the thought that Blake's subconscious was fond of her made her a tiny bit giddy, a familiar feeling she always had when making teasing jokes and comments that elicited a smirk from Blake that she always tried to hide.

"I do not," Blake said, not bothering to even look at Yang, no doubt hiding her amusement.

Yang continued with her sarcastic wit, satisfied it would distract Blake from her worries. "Wouldn't want me to know how much you like me, right?"

This time, Blake detached herself, rolling her eyes. "Real or not, you're insufferable," she felt better already, her retort rolling off her tongue easily.

Ending their verbal sparring match before it could really begin, Ruby entered the space. "Hey, Blake," she handed the Faunus a mug of brewed tea, who accepted it gratefully.

Letting the warmth of the cup spread to her hands, Blake gave the younger sister an apologetic smile. "Ruby, I'm sorry for waking you both."

Ruby, being Ruby, waved it off. Blake was a good friend of theirs. "It's no big deal. Yang's really good at this stuff," she knew that everyone, including herself, could turn to her big sister if they needed to.

Blake nodded, bringing her tea to her lips, her face changing to one of scepticism as she drank. "This is my favourite tea," she stated, glancing at Yang.

"Yup," the blonde replied, thinking nothing of it.

"I thought you said this was _your_ favourite tea, sis," Ruby too grew sceptical, having already been suspicious when Yang had randomly started to drink tea years ago.

Yang was a terrible liar, and it was a well-known fact. She was cornered by her traitorous sibling, and all she could do was grimace as she was caught red-handed.

Ruby grinned sneakily, as she always did when finding something to tease Yang about. "I knew you only started drinking tea because of Blake," she'd always thought that Blake was the reason, but had no way of proving it – she'd suddenly got lucky, and seeing her big sister blush was incredibly rewarding.

"Yeah, well!" Yang decided to bring out the big guns. "You only study when Weiss is looking, you nerd!"

Ruby gasped, indignant at the accusation. "Weiss is scary! Blake isn't!" She turned to shrug at Blake, "no offence."

"None taken," Blake sat back and watched the sibling rivalry with amusement.

Yang, being the _slightly_ more mature one, shook her head at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Arguing when they should have been sleeping, especially Ruby, whom she didn't like to know was losing sleep. "I think everything's under control now, Rubes. You can go back to bed."

Sensing the deliberateness in her words, Ruby couldn't really argue with that. Still, she couldn't help but still be concerned about her friend. "Are you feeling better, Blake?"

"Much better, in fact," Blake gave her a small smile over her tea cup, feeling slightly more guilty about keeping the younger girl up than she did about bothering Yang.

"Glad to hear it. Goodnight, guys."

Bidding her goodnight in return, Blake and Yang were then enveloped in the gravity of what had transpired. Late night comforting had definitely been a first for them, but neither of them could really complain.

Yang turned on her lamp, getting up to shut off the ceiling light that had illuminated most of the large room before. The soft glow reminded her of how late it was, feeling the urge to nod off invade her senses.

"Speaking of going back to bed," she said jokingly, trying to segue into the topic without implying she blamed Blake for anything.

But of course, Blake couldn't hide the way her cat ears folded down. "I've put you out, I'm sorry. I really should get going-"

"No, that's not what I meant," Yang backpedalled, racing back to Blake's side. "Just lay back for a bit, I don't mind."

"You don't?" Blake put her tea down on the nightstand, unsure of how to proceed. Deep down, she hoped that Yang didn't, despite her nervousness. She was used to Yang's kindness, but was still feeling undeserving of it, and unfamiliar with how she craved close proximity with the blonde.

"Not at all," as if that wasn't enough, Yang relaxed into her pillows, pulling Blake down along with her.

Blake merely squeaked in surprise, but made no protest. Instead of her head finding a pillow, she was aware that it had landed on Yang's shoulder. Yang chuckled slightly, readjusting her arm so she had Blake in a side-hug, feeling content with the decision as her friend made no effort to move. Revelling in Yang's natural body-heat, Blake tried to push away how she'd sworn she could feel the coldness of the Yang in her dream. She couldn't stop herself asking aloud, "What do you think it means? My dream?"

"It doesn't mean anything bad is going to happen," Yang said quietly, hating that Blake might be blaming herself for something that she had no control over. Blake didn't respond, so she gave a more definitive answer. "If anything, and excuse my smugness, it means you're afraid to lose me." Yang was aware that she was often borderline flirting with Blake, but it came so naturally to her. From the very beginning, she'd felt some level of attraction to the mysterious girl, and it had never really gone away.

That elicited a sigh from Blake. "Of course you're smug," she didn't deny the suggestion; not ever bothered with the way Yang seemed to push the boundaries of their friendship. It was almost as if there were no boundaries to push – which was odd considering how guarded Blake was when it came to most people.

"I'll never let you live it down, Blakey." The smirk was tangible in Yang's words. Whether it was from the teasing or the nickname, Blake would never know.

"Don't call me that," Blake automatically scolded her. They lay there for a beat or two, playfulness ebbing away into companionable silence. Still, Blake wondered about why she'd actually needed such reassurance over a stupid dream. "You don't think I overreacted?"

"Nope," Yang said with conviction, making sure to hug Blake a little tighter. "I'm touched that you felt you had to see me with your own eyes."

Blake had nothing to say to that. It sounded genuine, and at that very second, she'd never felt more grateful that she'd met Yang. She retrieved her cup of tea, thankful for whatever forces that rewarded her with the friends she'd found, happy to savour her favourite brew...and the presence of her friend.

It was a fair while before she saw the bottom of her cup, the warmth having faded from it. She still had Yang, though, who hadn't made a peep the entire time. Blake turned her head to see the blonde struggling to keep her own upright, lilac eyes fluttered shut.

"Yang," Blake said gently, the stark opposite of the way Ruby had woken her earlier.

Yang slowly cracked one eye open. "'Sup?"

Blake smiled fondly at the effort Yang had gone to for her this very early morning. "You're almost falling asleep. I've overstayed my welcome."

"Nuh-uh. It's too late for you to go home, you can just crash here," Yang blindly grabbed for her duvet to slip under, but paused when Blake made no move to follow. "You're totally welcome in my bed," she held the blanket up, her offer not really made to refuse.

"I had no idea you were that desperate to get me into bed," Blake remarked, putting aside her empty cup. It was easier to tease Yang when she wasn't on her game, and a sleepy Yang was very much _off_ her game.

"And I had no idea you dreamed about me," Yang said, not missing a beat. Maybe she wasn't _entirely_ off her game. Yet, it sounded more like a happy revelation than anything else.

The Faunus once again deflected as she settled herself into the mattress. "I'm willing to bet good money that you dream about me too." Betting money was something that Yang loved to do, especially with Nora (that girl was crazy). But to her surprise, her challenge was not met.

"You can't prove nothin', Belladonna," Yang reached out from the covers to switch off the lamp, bathing them in black.

Blake let her eyes adjust, watching Yang closely as her already drowsy state took over once again. Instead of betting against her, Yang hadn't even denied it. Her answer was ambiguous at best, prompting Blake to wonder if that had meant at all to sound like an admission that, yes, Yang _did_ dream about her.

Blake knew that her brain would work overtime when it came to interpreting the things that came out of Yang's mouth, always hoping that she never took offhanded comments the wrong way. Yet, this time, she had a gut feeling she'd gotten it right.

Yang, who was steadily drifting off, almost jumped as her hand was brushed against. Fingertips curled around her palm with a featherweight touch. "What're you doing?" Blake never held her hand – not unless Yang made her, and that was rare in itself.

"I'd rather not have another nightmare, so, now I'll know you're still here."

Well, that was a contender for the most adorable thing Yang had ever heard in her life. Since they'd already knocked down the wall of physical contact tonight, she didn't feel one bit guilty moving over to be Blake's big spoon. "There. Nothing to worry about, now." Her hand was guided into a hug around Blake's waist as the Faunus snuggled the slightest bit towards her. If she had had any idea how fond Blake was going to become of her tonight, she would have prepared herself. Wrote a speech, maybe.

"Thank you," Blake didn't say what _for_ , but she didn't have to.

And a speech might have been overkill, Yang realised. They seemed to communicate better with fewer words that held more meaning and intention, like it was their own language. And unspoken words were the most valuable thing of all.

"I'll be here when you wake up, Blake."

And it took all of Yang's willpower to not make a sound when she woke up the next morning to a rumbling purr on her chest.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Prompt: Imagine that Person A isn't normally the emotional type. One night, however, they show up at Person B's place, eyes red from crying. Turns out they had a vivid nightmare about Person B dying, and they wanted to make sure their friend/crush/datefriend/whatever was okay. Person B is touched by this rare display of emotion from A, and they let A stay with them for the night._

I liked this AU so you might see it again one day.


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